Dutch village to generate electricity from growing plants

The village of Budel is launching an experiment on generating electricity from the roots growing plants in May. The province of Brabant pledged its support for the experiment, Omroep Brabant reports.

The experiment will be done by company Plant-e, a spin-off of the Wageningen University, where the technique for generating energy from living plants was first developed.

The test will last a year and will be done in the wet nature reserve that borders teh grounds of zinc producer Nyrstar in Budel. Plants grow better in wet and hot conditions, and the better the growth, the more energy is produced.

The province is paying 270 thousand euros of the total 450 thousand euros the experiment will cost. If it is a success, the province plans to do the same in other wet parts in Brabant.